The word archetype comes from Latin and Greek, but it was Carl Jung that brought the word into wide usage today. In Jungian psychology, it refers to an instinctual pattern of thought or symbolic imagery derived from the past collective experience, and present in the individual unconscious. What archetype means is simply an image or symbol that we are all familiar with from the collective unconscious. The collective unconscious is a concept put forward by C.G. Jung to refer to a level of unconscious thought and experience all shared collectively by humans.

An example of archetype might be the Mother. Who is of course the creative, nurturing, loving mother figure looking down on you, protecting you. But archetypes aren't good nor are they bad. The mother figure also includes her fierce possessiveness and her power to give and take life. They are very much black and white...